Misplaced Hope
by Ysabela
Summary: Pansy Parkinson oneshot.


**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, or the elements that this story is comprimised of. JK Rowling does. I do not.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: ** I am trying to get across my feelings about Pany here. I think that she is very under-represented in canon, as well as being represted as a slut in fanfiction. I believe that this is not the case. If this is against your beliefs, then just click back.

A warm glow surrounded the girls gathered around a fireplace in the large common room, snippets of gossip and utter lies being exchanged. All that stopped when a small figure walked in through the entrance, the fire illuminating her dark brown curls that were pinned back with a pink clip.

The girls looked at her, and a tall blonde waved.

"Pansy! Over here." She cooed, laughing with the other girls.

The girl walked over to the girls, and flopped down onto a space on the cough they had made for her.

"God, Pansy, where were you? We thought you were with Draco…" Several giggles accompanied this remark, but the tall blonde girl only smirked.

Pansy rolled her eyes, sitting up and wrinkling her rather stuck-up-nose.

"I wish. No, I had a detention with McGonnagal, that horrid woman. Where is Draco, anyways?" She said, casting her blue eyes around the room hungrily.

More giggles. She turned around sharply, glaring at the blonde girl.

"Honestly Daphne, just stop it. You're annoying me." She snapped to her companion, wrinkling her nose again and standing up.

Daphne stood up as well, hand flying to her wand. The other girls stared, eyes wide as the two glared at each other, preparing for a fight – the tall, athletic and rather plain Daphne Greengrass against the short, skinny girl who was the favorite.

Finally, Daphne backed down, narrowing her eyes.

"I'm sorry Pansy. Just got a little carried away." She said, all traces of menace vanishing as they were replaced with a false smile.

The shorter of the two tilted her head up and glared at Daphne, then yawned haughtily and walked off towards the girl's dormitories.

"I'm going to bed." She announced, still glaring at the cluster of girls.

They simply stared, and started to whisper the moment she disappeared out of site.

Pansy was furious. Her pale face was turning red as she sat down on her bed in the room she shared with the other girls.

How DARE they laugh at her? She was sure that they'd been gossiping about her before she'd come in. Her and Draco. Like it was anything like that.

He was too concerned about his other friends, about serving Him, about… About everything BUT her. She tried, she honestly did, but he was always pushing her away. And she came back – but for what? Why did she? What was her reason?

To tell the truth, she wasn't quite sure. She HAD to have someone. She had to keep trying, to be the leader, to keep the girls together.

Because if they weren't together, then they were nothing. They were just gossping loners who nobody really liked. They were like those ignorant Gryffindors, all separated, with no real companionship.

She sighed and flopped down on her bed, frowning and searching in the dark for her favorite stuffed-animal, Boon.

Soon enough, she found it, and hugged it to her small chest weakly.

A single tear crawled out of her left eye, but she wiped it away, sniffing a bit and tucking herself into bed.

With the occasional mumble and turning around, eventually she was still.

At first, she hadn't minded at all. It was nice getting a flower once in a while. She had supposed that it had been Draco, although this was probably more due to wishful thinking than logic.

It was when they started to appear everywhere that she started to panic.

She grabbed them all up and vanished them as quick as she could as soon as they were

spotted, but her stalker had seemed undaunted.

To her, it was just a nuisance. Most likely a prank by one of the boys from another house. She couldn't let her posse know, because they'd never let her hear the end of it, and if she couldn't be in control she didn't deserve to be.

So she hid them, threw them away, destroyed them by magical means – until the one at breakfast.

How whoever it was had known where she would sit, she couldn't guess. But there it was. She had reached out to grab it and stuffed it inside her robe, so that no one would notice and she could destroy it later.

But that night, as she sat in a corner of the common room and took out the rose, she saw the note scribbled on a piece of paper stuck to it.

I Love You.

She stopped herself from gasping, and looked around suspiciously at her house-mates. It was a prank, to be sure. Or some kind of idiotic fan-boy wanting her attention.

Well, he wasn't going to get it.

Trying to appear aloof to whoever it was, she was distant from her friends and from Draco and the other boys who usually tried to paw her for attention, all the while giving

more attention to Draco. She normally snarled at them, but her icy indifference left them wondering.

Had something happened? What happened to Pansy?

The girls, too, were aware that something was up. Daphne, as the second-in-command, tried to gain her confidence, but Pansy just ignored it.

Roses were everywhere. In her dreams, she was surrounded by them. She took on a

paranoid air when dealing with anyone, and started to pay more attention in Herbology.

All the roses that appeared now, also had notes attached. Every single bloody one.

She made sure to dispose of all the ones she had collected in a thorough manner, usually by incineration when she was alone on the grounds, but one question was burned into her mind.

Who could it be?

Observing all of the Slytherin boys, she had spotted no significant clue. Nothing to give it away. She would really have to delve to figure this out.

Was it Blaise? She had an inkling that it was. He was Draco's best mate, if you weren't counting his lousy thugs Crabbe and Goyle. She knew that he had liked her in first and second year, when she had started hanging out with Draco and his crowd.

Yet he showed no obvious signs. He acted no different to her, or to anyone else for that matter.

So was it Draco? No. She decided that it wasn't. He really didn't have the imagination for that. And besides, he already had her, so why push it?

But she wasn't sure. She hoped. She didn't get any closer to the truth.

After several weeks of this agonizing torture, she finally broke down.

One evening she was sitting on Draco's lap, while he was pouting when she asked.

"Have you been sending roses?" She blurted out, blushing uncharacteristically.

He blinked, and raised an eyebrow, his blue eyes unsympathetic.

"Why would I do that, Pansy darling?" He said, rather confused.

She frowned, and folded her arms.

"Nothing. Nevermind." She said rather hurriedly.

He frowned, and wrapped an arm around her.

"Just stop it! I'm going to bed." She said, shoving his arm away and walking off, shoulders drooping.

As she walked up to her dormitory, Daphne followed behind, her blue eyes glinting and her mouth a smirk.

As Pansy was about to round the corner, Daphne cut in front of her.

"Honestly, did you really think anyone would do that to /you/? You may be the current favorite, but that's only because /I've/ never gotten the chance. Savor it while it lasts." She said in a patronizing tone.

Pansy snarled, and lunged at Daphne. The two fought, smacking, biting and punching each-other any chance they got. Eventually, one of the other girls brought the two apart, wand raised.

"Daphne, get over here. Stop bothering her. Pansy, just go to bed. It was a mean, nasty trick that Blaise pulled, so you'd better just forget it for now." She said calmly, playing the mediator for goodness' sake.

Pansy glared at the two and ran into the room. Not crying, because Blaise wasn't worth crying. Just furious. Not at him, they all did this sort of thing.

But at herself. For letting herself be duped by such a simple trick.

She wouldn't let it happen again.


End file.
